The First Thanksgiving

This harvest meal has become a symbol of cooperation and interaction between English colonists and

Native Americans. Although this feast is considered by many to the very first Thanksgiving celebration, it

was actually in keeping with a long tradition of celebrating the harvest and giving thanks for a successful

bounty of crops. Native American groups throughout the Americas, including the Pueblo, Cherokee, Creek

and many others organized harvest festivals, ceremonial dances, and other celebrations of thanks for

centuries before the arrival of Europeans in North America.

Historians have also recorded other ceremonies of thanks among European settlers in North America,

including British colonists in Berkeley Plantation, Virginia. At this site near the Charles River in December

of 1619, a group of British settlers led by Captain John Woodlief knelt in prayer and pledged

"Thanksgiving" to God for their healthy arrival after a long voyage across the Atlantic. This event has been

acknowledged by some scholars and writers as the official first Thanksgiving among European settlers on

record. Whether at Plymouth, Berkeley Plantation, or throughout the Americas, celebrations of thanks

have held great meaning and importance over time. The legacy of thanks, and particularly of the feast,

have survived the centuries as people throughout the United States gather family, friends, and enormous

amounts of food for their yearly Thanksgiving meal.

The Pilgrim's Menu

What foods topped the table at the first harvest feast? Historians aren't completely certain about the full

bounty, but it's safe to say the pilgrims weren't gobbling up pumpkin pie or playing with their mashed

potatoes. Following is a list of the foods that were available to the colonists at the time of the 1621 feast.

Foods That May Have Been on the Menu

Seafood: Cod, Eel, Clams, Lobster

Wild Fowl: Wild Turkey, Goose, Duck, Crane, Swan, Partridge, Eagles

Meat: Venison, Seal

Grain: Wheat Flour, Indian Corn

Vegetables: Pumpkin, Peas, Beans, Onions, Lettuce, Radishes, Carrots

Fruit: Plums, Grapes

Nuts: Walnuts, Chestnuts, Acorns

Herbs and Seasonings: Olive Oil, Liverwort, Leeks, Dried Currants, Parsnips

Surprisingly, the following foods, all considered staples of the modern Thanksgiving meal, didn't appear on

the pilgrims's first feast table:

What Was Not on the Menu

Ham: There is no evidence that the colonists had butchered a pig by this time, though they had brought

pigs with them from England.

Sweet Potatoes/Potatoes: These were not common.

Corn on the Cob: Corn was kept dried out at this time of year.

Cranberry Sauce: The colonists had cranberries but no sugar at this time.

Pumpkin Pie: It's not a recipe that exists at this point, though the pilgrims had recipes for stewed pumpkin.

Chicken/Eggs: We know that the colonists brought hens with them from England, but it's unknown how

many they had left at this point or whether the hens were still laying.

Milk: No cows had been aboard the Mayflower, though it's possible that the colonists used goat milk to

make cheese.

However, the only two items that historians know for sure were on the menu are venison and wild fowl,

which are mentioned in primary sources. The most detailed description of the "First Thanksgiving" comes

from Edward Winslow from A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, in 1621:

"Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special

manner rejoice together after we had gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much

fowl as, with a little help beside, served the company almost a week. At which time, among other

recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their

greatest king Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they

went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed upon our governor, and

upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us, yet

by the goodness of God, we are so far from want that we often wish you partakers of our

Seventeenth Century Table Manners

The pilgrims didn't use forks; they ate with spoons, knives, and their fingers. They wiped their hands on

large cloth napkins which they also used to pick up hot morsels of food. Salt would have been on the table

at the harvest feast, and people would have sprinkled it on their food. Pepper, however, was something

that they used for cooking but wasn't available on the table.

In the seventeenth century, a person's social standing determined what he or she ate. The best food was

placed next to the most important people. People didn't tend to sample everything that was on the table

(as we do today), they just ate what was closest to them.

Serving in the seventeenth century was very different from serving today. People weren't served their

meals individually. Foods were served onto the table and then people took the food from the table and ate

it. All the servers had to do was move the food from the place where it was cooked onto the table.
Pilgrims didn't eat in courses as we do today. All of the different types of foods were placed on the table at

the same time and people ate in any order they chose. Sometimes there were two courses, but each of

them would contain both meat dishes, puddings, and sweets.

More Meat, Less Vegetables

Our modern Thanksgiving repast is centered around the turkey, but that certainly wasn't the case at the

pilgrims's feasts. Their meals included many different meats. Vegetable dishes, one of the main

components of our modern celebration, didn't really play a large part in the feast mentality of the

seventeenth century. Depending on the time of year, many vegetables weren't available to the colonists.

The pilgrims probably didn't have pies or anything sweet at the harvest feast. They had brought some

sugar with them on the Mayflower but by the time of the feast, the supply had dwindled. Also, they didn't

have an oven so pies and cakes and breads were not possible at all. The food that was eaten at the

harvest feast would have seemed fatty by 1990's standards, but it was probably more healthy for the

pilgrims than it would be for people today. The colonists were more active and needed more protein. Heart

attack was the least of their worries. They were more concerned about the plague and pox.

Surprisingly Spicy Cooking

People tend to think of English food at bland, but, in fact, the pilgrims used many spices, including

cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, and dried fruit, in sauces for meats. In the seventeenth century, cooks

did not use proportions or talk about teaspoons and tablespoons. Instead, they just improvised. The best

way to cook things in the seventeenth century was to roast them. Among the pilgrims, someone was

assigned to sit for hours at a time and turn the spit to make sure the meat was evenly done.

Since the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians had no refrigeration in the seventeenth century, they tended to

dry a lot of their foods to preserve them. They dried Indian corn, hams, fish, and herbs.

Dinner for Breakfast: Pilgrim Meals

The biggest meal of the day for the colonists was eaten at noon and it was called noonmeat or dinner. The

housewives would spend part of their morning cooking that meal. Supper was a smaller meal that they had

at the end of the day. Breakfast tended to be leftovers from the previous day's noonmeat.

In a pilgrim household, the adults sat down to eat and the children and servants waited on them. The foods

that the colonists and Wampanoag Indians ate were very similar, but their eating patterns were different.

While the colonists had set eating patterns—breakfast, dinner, and supper—the Wampanoags tended to

eat when they were hungry and

Pumpkin

Another modern staple at almost every Thanksgiving table is the

customary 'Pumpkin Pie'. It is not sure whether pumpkin was one
of the dishes in the first thanksgiving dinner. Pilgrims probably
made a pumpkin dish sweetened with honey or syrup. They were
however a part of all traditional meals long before the arrival of
pilgrims. Pumpkin leaves were also used as salads. According to
historians, other seasonal vegetables included squash. People at
that time were not particularly fond of vegetables, they were
mostly meat eaters. Pumpkin is one of the important symbols of
the harvest festival and has been an American-favourite for over
400 years now.

Turkey

The celebration of Thanksgiving will be incomplete without the legendary Turkey. It derives its name from
the 'turk turk' sounds it makes when scared. Turkey was at one time being considered as the national
symbol of America. Benjamin Franklin felt that turkey was the right choice because it was a good runner
and had a sharp sight. A bald eagle later became the national symbol of America.

First Thanksgiving Feast

The famous 'Turkey' adorns the table of every household as a
main course during the celebration. The customary dinner
reminds of the 'Four Wild Turkeys' served at the 'First
Thanksgiving Feast'.

It is said, that pilgrims had a feast consisting of cooked turkey

after their first harvest in the year 1621, which popularly came to
be known as 'First Thanksgiving Feast'. It continued for three
days and included ninety Indians. There is however no evidence
to prove that turkey was cooked during the first feast. It could
have been Venison-flesh of a deeror wild goose meat.

According to folklore Queen Elizabeth of 16th century England was chewing a roast goose during a
harvest festival. During the meal, she got to know that the Spanish Armada, on its way to attack England
had sunk. In the joy of good news, she ordered for a second goose. Goose became a favourite bird at
harvest time in England. However, when the pilgrims arrived in America, they replaced the roasted goose
with roasted turkey as main course as it was easier to find and in plenty.

Today, every house cooks turkey as the main dish during the celebration. It is the main mascot of the
modern-day thanksgiving. The festivity completes with the customary 'Turkey Song'.
Corn

Corn is one of the popular symbols of thanksgiving. It came in

many varieties and colours-red, white, yellow and blue. Some
Americans considered blue and white corn sacred. It is said that
native Americans had been growing corn a long time before the
pilgrims arrived in their country. The oldest corns date 7000 years
back and were grown in Mexico. Americans taught pilgrims how
to grow corn and help them survive the bitter winter of 1620. It is
certain that corn were a part of the first thanksgiving dinner.

The tradition continues and corn finds its place on every dinner
table world over during thanksgiving dinner. Ornamental
Corncobs are quite popular during the festival. They are used to
decorate dining tables and make harvest wreaths- A popular gift item among Americans. Ornamental
popcorns are also widely used. Corn reminds us of the importance and heritage of the famous harvest
festival. It also remains America's foundation of 'Modern-
Agriculture '.

Cranberry

Cranberry, is a symbol and a modern diet staple of thanksgiving.

Originally called crane berry, it derived its name from its pink
blossoms and drooping head which reminded the pilgrim of a
crane. The name was later changed to what is popularly known
as Cranberry. Pilgrims soon found out a way to sweeten the
bitten cranberries with maple sugar. Ever since cranberry sauce
is a permanent companion of turkey during thanksgiving feast.

Cornucopia

Cornucopia is the most common symbol of a harvest festival. A Horn shaped container, it is filled with
abundance of the Earth's harvest. It is also known as the 'horn of plenty'. The traditional cornucopia was a
curved goat's horn filled to brim with fruits and grains. According to Greek legend, Amalthea (a goat) broke
one of her horns and offered it to Greek God Zeus as a sign of reverence. As a sign of gratitude, Zeus
later set the goat's image in the sky also known as constellation Capricorn
Beans

Beans are a special

symbol of thanksgiving.
Native Americans are
believed to have taught
the pilgrims to grow
beans next to cornstalks. This was so that beans could
grow and use cornstalks as their pole. Thus American beans are
also known as 'Pole Beans'. Famously known as one of the
'Three sisters', beans are a part of thanksgiving feast

The Pilgrims left Plymouth, England, on

September 6, 1620. Their destination? The

New World. Although filled with uncertainty
and peril, it offered both civil and religious liberty.

For over two months, the 102 passengers braved the harsh elements of a vast
storm-tossed sea. Finally, with firm purpose and a reliance on Divine
Providence, the cry of "Land!" was heard.

Arriving in Massachusetts in late November, the Pilgrims sought a suitable

landing place. On December 11, just before disembarking at Plymouth Rock,
they signed the "Mayflower Compact" - America's first document of civil
government and the first to introduce self-government.

After a prayer service, the Pilgrims began building hasty

shelters. However, unprepared for the starvation and sickness of a harsh New
England winter, nearly half died before spring. Yet, persevering in prayer, and
assisted by helpful Indians, they reaped a bountiful harvest the following
summer.

The grateful Pilgrims then declared a three-day feast, starting on December 13,
1621, to thank God and to celebrate with their Indian friends. While this was not
the first Thanksgiving in America (thanksgiving services were held in Virginia as
early as 1607), it was America's first Thanksgiving Festival.

Pilgrim Edward Winslow described the

Pilgrims' Thanksgiving in these words:

"Our harvest being gotten in, our Governor sent four men on fowling [bird
hunting] so that we might, after a special manner, rejoice together after we had
gathered the fruit of our labors. They four in one day killed as much fowl as...
served the company almost a week... Many of the Indians [came] amongst us and...
their greatest King, Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we
entertained and feasted; and they went out and killed five deer, which they
brought... And although it be not always so plentiful as it was at this time with us,
yet BY THE GOODNESS OF GOD WE ARE... FAR FROM WANT."

In 1789, following a proclamation issued by President George

Washington, America celebrated its first Day of Thanksgiving to God under its
new constitution. That same year, the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which
President Washington was a member, announced that the first Thursday in
November would become its regular day for giving thanks, "unless another day
be appointed by the civil authorities." Yet, despite these early national
proclamations, official Thanksgiving observances usually occurred only at the
State level.

Much of the credit for the adoption of a later ANNUAL national Thanksgiving
Day may be attributed to Mrs. Sarah Joseph Hale, the editor of Godey's Lady's
Book. For thirty years, she promoted the idea of a national Thanksgiving Day,
contacting President after President until President Abraham Lincoln responded
in 1863 by setting aside the last Thursday of November as a national Day of
Thanksgiving. Over the next seventy-five years, Presidents followed Lincoln's
precedent, annually declaring a national Thanksgiving Day. Then, in 1941,
Congress permanently established the fourth Thursday of each November as a
national holiday.

Lincoln's original 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation came -

spiritually speaking - at a pivotal point in his life. During the first week of July of
that year, the Battle of Gettysburg occurred, resulting in the loss of some 60,000
American lives. Four months later in November, Lincoln delivered his famous
"Gettsysburg Address." It was while Lincoln was walking among the thousands
of graves there at Gettysburg that he committed his life to Christ. As he
explained to a friend:

When I left Springfield [to assume the Presidency] I asked the people to pray for
me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was
not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of
our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.

As Americans celebrate Thanksgiving each year, we hope they will retain the
original gratefulness to God displayed by the Pilgrims and many other founding
fathers , and remember that it is to those early and courageous Pilgrims that
they owe not only the traditional Thanksgiving holiday but also the concepts of
self-government, the "hard-work" ethic, self-reliant communities, and devout
religious faith.

The Ancient Celtic Fire Festivals

There appear to have been four major holy days celebrated by the Paleopagan
Druids, possibly throughout the Celtic territories: Samhain, Oimelc, Beltane
& Lughnasadh (in one set of Irish-based modern spellings). Four additional
holy (or “High”) days (Winter Solstice or “Midwinter,” Spring Equinox,
Summer Solstice or “Midsummer,” and Fall Equinox), which are based on
Germanic or other Indo-European cultures, are also celebrated in the
Neopagan Druid calendar, along with others based on mainstream holidays
(visit the linked essay for details).

The most common practice for the calculation of Samhain, Oimelc, Beltane
and Lughnasadh has been, for the last several centuries, to use the civil
calendar days or eves of November 1st, February 1st, May 1st and August 1st,
respectively. Since we have conflicting evidence on how the Paleopagan
Druids calculated these dates, modern Neopagans just use whichever method
is most convenient. This means, of course, that we aren’t all doing anything
uniformly on any given night, which fits perfectly with the Neopagan saying
that, “organizing Pagans is like herding cats.” It doesn’t match the Evil
Conspiracy theories — which have us all marching to a strict drumbeat in
perfect Satanic unison — at all.

These four major holy days have been referred to as “fire

festivals” for at least the last hundred years or so, because
(1) to the ancient Celts, as with all the Indo-European
Paleopagans, fire was a physical symbol of divinity,
holiness, truth, and beauty; (2) fires play important roles
in the traditional customs associated with these festivals;
and (3) several early Celtic scholars called them that.
Whether in Ireland or India, among the Germans or the
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European Paleopagans on every important religious

occasion. To this very day, among Eastern Orthodox and
Western Catholics, you can’t have a satisfying ritual
without a few candles being lit — of course, the
Fundamentalists consider them Heathen too!

Samhain or “Samhuinn” is pronounced “sow-” (as in

female pig) “-en” (with the neutral vowel sound) — not
“Sam Hain” — because “mh” in the middle of an Irish
word is a “w” sound (don’t ask me why, it’s just Irish).
Known in Modern Irish as Lá Samhna, in Welsh as Nos
Galen-Gaeaf (that is, the “Night of the Winter Calends”),
and in Manx as Laa Houney (Hollantide Day), Sauin or
Souney, Samhain is often said to have been the most
important of the fire festivals, because (according to most
Celtic scholars) it may have marked the Celtic New Year.
At the least, Samhain was equal in importance to Beltane
and shared many symbolic characteristics.

Samhain was the original festival that the Western Christian calendar moved
its “All Saints’ Day” to (Eastern Christians continue to celebrate All Saints’
Day in the spring, as the Roman Christians had originally). Since the Celts,
like many cultures, started every day at sunset of the night before, Samhain
became the “evening” of “All Hallows” (“hallowed” = “holy” = “saint”)
which was eventually contracted into “Hallow-e’en” or the modern
“Halloween.”

Whether it was the Celtic New Year or not, Samhain was the beginning of the
Winter or Dark Half of the Year (the seasons of Geimredh=Winter and
Earrach=Spring) as Beltane was the beginning of the Summer or Light Half
of the Year (the seasons of Samradh=Summer and Foghamhar=Fall). The
day before Samhain is the last day of summer (or the old year) and the day
after Samhain is the first day of winter (or of the new year). Being “between”
seasons or years, Samhain was (and is) considered a very magical time, when
the dead walk among the living and the veils between past, present and future
may be lifted in prophecy and divination.
 Many important mythological events are said to have
occured on that day. It was on a Samhain that the
Nemedians captured the terrible Tower of Glass built by the
evil Formorians; that the Tuatha De Danann later defeated
the Formors once and for all; and that many other events of
a dramatic or prophetic nature in Celtic myth happened.
Many of these events had to do with the temporary victory
of the forces of darkness over those of light, signaling the
beginning of the cold and dark half of the year.

There is some evidence to indicate that three days were spent celebrating this
festival. Philip Carr-Gomm, Chosen Chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates and
Druids, speaking of both Paleopagan and Mesopagan Druids in England, had
this to say about it in his Elements of the Druid Tradition:

Samhuinn, from 31 October to 2 November was a time of no-time. Celtic

society, like all early societies, was highly structured and organised, everyone
knew their place. But to allow that order to be psychologically comfortable,
the Celts knew that there had to be a time when order and structure were
abolished, when chaos could reign. And Samhuinn, was such a time. Time
was abolished for the three days of this festival and people did crazy things,
men dressed as women and women as men. [This happened at Beltane too —
IB] Farmers’ gates were unhinged and left in ditches, peoples’ horses were
moved to different fields, and children would knock on neighbours’ doors for
food and treats in a way that we still find today, in a watered-down way, in the
custom of trick-or-treating on Hallowe’en.

But behind this apparent lunacy, lay a deeper meaning. The Druids knew that
these three days had a special quality about them. The veil between this world
and the World of the Ancestors was drawn aside on these nights, and for those
who were prepared, journeys could be made in safety to the ’other side’. The
Druid rites, therefore, were concerned with making contact with the spirits of
the departed, who were seen as sources of guidance and inspiration rather than
as sources of dread. The dark moon, the time when no moon can be seen in
the sky, was the phase of the moon which ruled this time, because it represents
a time in which our mortal sight needs to be obscured in order for us to see
into the other worlds.

The dead are honoured and feasted, not as the dead, but as the living spirits of
loved ones and of guardians who hold the root-wisdom of the tribe. With the
coming of Christianity, this festival was turned into Hallowe’en (31 October),
All Hallows [All Saints Day] (1 November), and All Souls Day (2
November). Here we can see most clearly the way in which Christianity built
on the Pagan foundations it found rooted in these isles. Not only does the
purpose of the festival match with the earlier one, but even the unusual length
of the festival is the same.

The Christian Church was unable to get the people to stop celebrating this
holiday, so they simply sprinkled a little holy water on it and gave it new
names, as they did with other Paleopagan holidays and customs. This was a
form of calendrical imperialism, co-opting Paleopagan sacred times, as they
had Paleopagan sacred places (most if not all of the great cathedrals of Europe
were built on top of earlier Paleopagan shrines and sacred groves). So when
Fundamentalists come to your local school board and try to get Halloween
removed from the public schools because “it’s a Pagan holiday,” they are
perfectly correct. Of course, Valentine’s Day/Lupercalia, Easter/Eostre, and
Christmas/Yule also have many Paleopagan elements associated with their
dating and/or symbols, as the Jehovah’s Witnesses and others have pointed
out for decades. So if we decide to rid the public schools of all holidays that
have Pagan aspects to them, there won’t be many left for the kids to enjoy.
I find it amusing that American teens and pre-teens seem to have instinctively
expanded their seasonal celebrations to add another night before Halloween,
one on which they commit various acts of harmless (or unfortunately not)
vandalism, including pranks on neighbors. If we assume that All Saints Day
was moved to co-opt the central day of Samhain which was associated
originally with the Gods and Goddesses of the Celts, and All Souls Day was
supposed to co-opt the worship of the Ancestors, then the modern “Cabbage
Night,” “Hell Night” (boy does that push the Fundamentalists’ buttons!), or
simply “Mischief Night” (which used to be April 30th — the night before
May Day — in Germany — there’s that Beltane/Samhain connection again)
would correspond to a celebration of the often mischievous Nature Spirits.
This then nicely covers the Indo-European pattern of the “Three Kindreds” of
Deities, Ancestors, and Nature Spirits.

Trick or Treat

Where does the custom of “trick or treating” come from? Is it really ancient, a
few centuries old, or relatively modern? Let’s look at the evidence:

Kevin Danaher, in his remarkable book The Year in Ireland, has a long
discussion of the traditional Irish celebrations of this festival. In one section
on “Hallow-E’en Guisers,” he says:

A familiar sight in Dublin city on and about October 31 is that of small groups
of children, arrayed in grotesque garments and with faces masked or painted,
accosting the passers-by or knocking on house doors with the request: “Help
the Hallow E’en party! Any apples or nuts?” in the expectation of being given
small presents; this, incidentally, is all the more remarkable as it is the only
folk custom of the kind which has survived in the metropolis.
A couple of generations ago, in parts of Dublin and in other areas of Ireland,
the groups would have consisted of young men and grown boys, who often
travelled considerable distances in their quest, with consequently greater
reward. The proceeds were usually expended on a “Hallow E’en party,” with
music, dancing, feasting and so on, at some chosen house, and not merely
consumed on the spot as with the children nowadays…

Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge, ii, 370, states that in parts of Count Waterford,

Hallow E’en is called oidhche na h-aimléise, “The night of mischief or con.”
It was a custom in the county — it survives still in places — for the “boys” to
assemble in gangs, and, headed by a few horn-blowers who were always
selected for their strength of lungs, to visit all the farmers’ houses in the
district and levy a sort of blackmail, good humouredly asked for, and as
cheerfully given. They afterward met at some rendezvous, and in merry
revelry celebrated the festival of Samhain in their own way. When the distant
winding of the horns was heard, the bean a’ tigh [woman of the house]
prepared for their reception, and got ready the money or builín (white bread)
to be handed to them through the half-opened door. Whoever heard the wild
scurry of their rush through a farm-yard to the kitchen-door — there was
always a race amongst them to get possession of the latch — will not question
the propriety of the word aimiléis [mischief] applied to their proceedings. The
leader of the band chaunted a sort of recitative in Gaelic, intoning it with a
strong nasal twang to conceal his identity, in which the good-wife was called
upon to do honour to Samhain… “A contributor to An Claidheamh Soluis, 15
Dec. 1906, 5, gives a example of these verses, from Ring, County Waterford:

‘Anocht Oidhche Shamhna, a Mhongo Mango. Sop is na fuinneogaibh; dúntar

na díirse. Eirigh id’ shuidhe, a bhean an tighe. Téirigh siar go banamhail, tar
aniar go flaitheamhail. Tabhair leat ceapaire aráin agus ime ar dhath do
leacain fhéin; a mbeidh léim ghirrfiadh dhe aoirde ann ages ciscéim choiligh
dhe im air. Tabhair chugham peigín de bhainne righin, mín, milis a mbeidh
leawhnach ’n-a chosa agus uachtar ’n-a mhullaigh; go mbeidh sé ag
imtheacht ’n-a chnocaibh agus ag teacht Ôn-a shléibhtibh, agus badh ó leat
go dtachtfadh sé mé, agus mo chreach fhada níor bhaoghal dom.’

‘(“Oh Mongo Mango, Hallow E’en tonight. Straw in the windows and close
the doors. Rise up housewife, go inside womanly, return hospitably, bring
with you a slice of bread and butter the colour of your own cheek, as high as a
hare’s jump with a cock’s step of butter on it. Bring us a measure of thick fine
sweet milk, with new milk below and cream above, coming in hills and going
in mountains; you may think it would choke me, but, alas! I am in no
danger.”)’

Wow, that chant sure sounds scary, doesn’t it?

As I mentioned before, because it was an “in-between” kind of holiday, spirits

(nice or nasty), ancestors (ditto), or mortals (ditto?) were thought to be more
easily able to pass from This World to the Other World and vice versa. It was
also a perfect time for divination or “fortune telling” (Danaher talks about all
of this at great length). While some monotheists may consider these activities
to be “evil,” most religions in human history have considered them perfectly
normal.

Before and after the arrival of Christianity, early November was when people
in Western and Northern Europe finished the last of their harvesting,
butchered their excess stock (so the surviving animals would have enough
food to make it through the winter), and held great feasts. They invited their
ancestors to join them, decorated family graves, and told ghost stories — all
of which may strike some monotheists today as spiritually erroneous, but
which hardly seems “evil” — and many modern polytheists do much the same
(though few of us have herds to thin). So where does “trick or treating” come
in?

According to Tad Tuleja’s essay, “Trick or Treat: Pre-Texts and Contexts,” in

Santino’s previously mentioned anthology, Halloween, modern trick or
treating (primarily children going door-to-door, begging for candy) began
fairly recently, as a blend of several ancient and modern influences. I’m
mixing Tuleja’s material here with my own insights, see his essay for details
of his opinions, which I’ll mark with italics to separate from mine:

 At various times and places in the Middle Ages, customs developed of

beggers, then children, asking for “soul cakes” on All Souls Day.
 At some other Medieval times and places, costumed holiday parading,
singing and dancing at May Day, Halloween, and Yule (with different
themes, of course, though sometimes with similar characters, such as
the “Hobby Horse”) became popular in Ireland and the British Isles.
Originally these costumed celebrants were adults and older teens,
who would go from house to house (as Danaher describes above)
demanding beer and munchies in exchange for their performances,
which mixed Pagan and Christian symbols and themes. While many
Neopagans may think these folk customs go all the way back to
Paleopagan times, they are actually fairly modern (see Stations of the
Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in England, by Ronald Hutton).
 To the medieval householders, of course, being thought stingy
(especially in front of the visiting ancestors and faery folk at
Halloween) would be very bad luck, as it would violate the ancient
laws of hospitality. Perhaps there were some inebriated paraders who
might have decided to come back later in the night and play tricks
upon those who hadn’t rewarded them properly, but any references
to such are fairly modern.
 In 1605 c.e., Guy Fawkes’ abortive effort to blow up the British
Parliament on November 5th, led to the creation of “Guy Fawkes Day,”
celebrated by the burning of effigies of Fawkes in bonfires and children
dressing in rags to beg for money for fireworks. As the decades rolled
by, this became thoroughly entwined with Halloween celebrations and
customs. This is not surprising, considering that bonfires were a central
part of the old Samhain/Halloween tradition, and that Nov. 5th was
actually closer to the astrological date for Samhain (thought by some
 Neopagans to be the original dating method) than Nov. 1st was! In the
year 2006, the movie V for Vendetta introduced the image of Guy
Fawkes to millions of Americans.
 In 19th Century America, rural immigrants from Ireland and Scotland
kept gender-specific Halloween customs from their homelands: girls
stayed indoors and did divination games, while the boys roamed
outdoors engaging in almost equally ritualized pranks, which their
elders “blamed” on the spirits being abroad that night.
 Also in mid-19th Century New York, children called “ragamuffins”
would dress in costumes and beg for pennies from adults on
Thanksgiving Day.
 Things got nastier with increased urbanization and poverty in the
1930’s. Adults began casting about for ways to control the previously
harmless but now increasingly expensive and dangerous vandalism of
the “boys.” Towns and cities began organizing “safe” Halloween
events and householders began giving out bribes to the neighborhood
kids as a way to distract them away from their previous anarchy. The
ragamuffins disappeared or switched their date to Halloween. The
term “trick or treat,” finally appears in print around 1939!

Pranks became even nastier in the 1980’s, with widespread poverty existing
side-by-side with obscene greed. Unfortunately, as criminologists, military
recruiters and historians know, the most dangerous animals on our planet are
unemployed teenaged males. Bored kids in a violence-saturated culture slip all
too easily from harmless “decoration” of their neighbors’ houses with shaving
cream and toilet paper to serious vandalism and assaults. Blaming Halloween
for this is rather like blaming the Fourth of July for the many firecracker
injuries that happen every year (and which are also combatted by publicly
sponsored events).

By the mid- 20th century in Ireland and Britain, it seems only the smaller
children would dress up and parade to the neighbors’ houses, do little
performances, then ask for a reward. American kids seem to remember this
with their chants of “Jingle bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg,” and
other classic tunes done for no reason other than because “it’s traditional.”
To a great extent, the costumes worn by modern trick-or-treaters represent, as
they might have in older times, an effort to entertain, amuse and/or scare the
neighbors, and to compete a bit with others in beauty, ugliness, humor,
scariness, and costuming skill.

What was Halloween in America like forty years ago? Read Lady Phae’s
Halloween and Me essay on my website for some heartwarming memories.

Why Bother to save Halloween? is an essay by Richard Seltzer, which has yet
more reasons why it’s important to keep the custom of trick or treating alive:

Halloween is a time that reconfirms the social bond of a neighborhood

(particularly the bond between strangers of different generations) by a ritual
act of trade. Children go to lengths to dress up and overcome their fear of
strangers in exchange for candy. And adults buy the candy and overcome their
distrust of strange children in exchange for the pleasure of seeing their wild
outfits and vicariously reliving their own adventures as children. 

In other words, the true value and importance of Halloween comes not from
parading in costumes in front of close friends and family, but from this
interchange with strangers, exorcising our fears of strangers, reaffirming our
social bond with the people of the neighborhood who we rarely, if ever, see
the rest of the year.

What about Those Evil Symbols?

Several correspondents have said, “If the holiday isn’t evil why are there so
many evil images associated with it” such as ghosts, skeletons, black cats,
ugly witches, demons, monsters, and Jack O’Lanterns? The answer, of course,
is that most of these images aren’t evil, and the ones that are negative were
added by people opposed to the holiday.
Ghosts have always made perfect sense, for Samhain was the festival where
the Gates Between the Worlds were open wide and departed friends and
family could cross over in either direction. As I mentioned earlier, people
invited their ancestors to join them in celebration. The only ones who would
cower in fear would be people who had wronged someone dead and who
therefore feared retribution of some sort. The often repeated tale that the dead
roamed the earth after dying until the next Samhain, when they could then
pass over to the afterlife, makes no sense in either Celtic Paleopagan or
Medieval Christian beliefs, so is probably fairly modern. It is possible that any
“earth-bound” spirits needing assistance to pass over might have received it at
this time, but this wouldn’t have been considered necessary for most of the
dead.

Samhain was the time of year when the herds were culled. That means that
farmers and herders killed the old, sick or weak animals, as well as others they
didn’t think would make it through the winter with that year’s available food.
Prior to the last few centuries in the West, most people lived with death as a
common part of life, especially since most of them lived on farms. Samhain
became imbued with symbolism of these annual deaths. So skeletons and
skulls joined the ghosts as symbols of the holiday. Again, there’s nothing evil
here, at least to the innocent in heart. Indeed, in Mexico, where the holiday is
known as Los dias de los Muertos, or “Days of the Dead,” (combining All
Saints Day with All Souls Day) skeleton and skull toys and even candies are
made and enjoyed by the millions, many by and for devout Roman Catholics.

Medieval Christians feared cats, for reasons as yet unclear, and especially
feared black cats who could sneak “invisibly” around at night. It’s ironic that
they feared cats so much that they killed tens of thousands of them, leaving
their granaries open to rats and mice, no doubt causing much food to be
wasted, and leaving Europe as a whole wide open to the Black Plague, which
was carried by the fleas on those rats and mice. Unfortunately, the millions of
human deaths caused by the Black Plague were later blamed on the Diabolic
Witches the Church invented, then murdered. Cats, as “evil” animals, then
became associated with the “evil” witches.

Witches as figures of pure evil were invented by the medieval Church and
inflated by the Catholic and Protestant Churches during the Reformation
period. Paleopagan witches were people suspected by their neighbors of using
magic or poison to harm others, though the term was sometimes used to insult
or accuse the “cunning folk” (who were herbalists, diviners, and folk
magicians) of committing malpractice. I know of no formal association of
witches with Samhain until the late Middle Ages. For some historical facts
about all the different people — real and imaginary — who have been called
“witches” over the centuries, see my book, Bonewits's Essential Guide to
Witchcraft and Wicca or the excerpts from it available on my website.

As the Church tried harder and harder to make people abandon their
Paleopagan customs for the new Christian ones, Samhain became a prime
target. The Church began to say that demons were abroad with the dead, and
that the fairy folk were all monsters who would kill the unwary. When
Diabolic Witchcraft was invented, the “Evil Devil-Worshipping Witch”
simply became the newest monster to add to the others. The green skin was a
twentieth century touch the Wizard of Oz movie added to the “evil old hag”
version of the Diabolic Witch.

Halloween became a holiday in modern times for which half the fun was
being scared out of one’s wits. Modern fiction added new monsters to the
American mix, including vampires (previously known mostly in Eastern
Europe), werewolves, mummies (after modern Egyptology started), and
various psychopathic killers and ghouls. These are not images anyone actually
needs to perpetuate, but the teens certainly enjoy them.
Jack O’Lanterns, as mentioned earlier, became popular as house decorations
in the USA after immigrant Irish people discovered how much easier
pumpkins were to carve than turnips, unleashing what has turned into quite an
art form in the last decade or so. They certainly add a spooky touch, especially
when the glowing faces appear from the darkness.

Most psychiatrists and psychologists seem to agree that Halloween’s emphatic

celebration of death serves to bring out our culture’s suppressed feelings
about the topic, which can be a healthy experience for both children and
adults. I strongly suspect that the primary reason for American culture’s
aversion to thinking about death and dying is that most modern Westerners
don’t actually believe the mainstream monotheistic religions’ doctrines on the
topic, or if they do, they fear eternal punishment more than they expect an
eternal reward. The Paleopagan/Neopagan views that death is a transition to a
new state of being where things go on much as they have here, at least until
one reincarnates, is much less frightening (at least for those having a relatively
happy life now), and makes most spirits of the dead unthreatening to us.

Certainly, Halloween gives parents an opportunity to discuss their beliefs and

attitudes about death with their children, one hopes with no recent close death
to cloud the issues, and to soothe whatever fears their children may have.

How Neopagans will Celebrate

Reporters are always asking us what we Neopagans “do” for Halloween.

Well, usually we take our kids around our neighborhoods trick or treating, as
carefully as any other parents. Those who stay at home may hand out
commercially packaged candy to those who visit our houses (we might prefer
to give out homemade goodies, but paranoia has made such treats
unwelcome). Over the weekend, our circles of friends will have rituals that
might include “dumb suppers” (silent, saltless meals) for the Ancestors, or
separate “kid circles” and costume parties for our children — and we always
wind up with at least as many kids as we started out with! Most of us will do
some divination, give honor to those who have died in the past year, play
traditional games, and meditate on our own mortality.

That’s what American Neopagans will do on Samhain. No blood drinking, no

baby sacrifices, no crimes — just good, clean, all-American festivity with
some ceremonial additions appropriate to the season and current events.

A student sent me an email asking me to sum up in more personal terms what

Halloween means to me and other Neopagans. Here is what I told her:

 Halloween is the modern name for Samhain, an ancient Celtic holy day
which many Neopagans — especially Wiccans, Druids and Celtic
Reconstructionists — celebrate as a spiritual beginning of a new year.
 
 Halloween is a time to confront our personal and cultural attitudes
towards death and those who have passed on before us.
 
 Halloween is a time to lift the veil between the many material and
spiritual worlds in divination, so as to gain spiritual insight about our
pasts and futures.
 
 Halloween is a time to deepen our connection to the cycles of the
seasons, to the generations that have come before us and those that
will follow, and to the Gods and Goddesses we worship.
 
 Halloween is a time to let our inner children out to play, to pass on our
childhood traditions to our children, and to share the fun with our
friends and neighbors of many other faiths. So…
 

Happy Halloween Everyone!